Arrogance and Conceit
by LunaticLOVEgood
Summary: How did Lily Evans fall for James Potter? Her first impression of him tainted her opinion of him for over 5 years, but what changed her emotions from hate to love? and how?
1. Chapter 1

Author's note: This is the first Fan Fiction story I have ever written, I hope you will enjoy it. English is not my first language and that may effect my grammar or choice of words, I welcome any criticism or comments that can help me improve myself in the future. I have already finished writing the other chapters of the story but I have yet to correct minor mistakes within the text, but all the chapters should be up within a few days. While I made up the story line of this I obviously use names and characters from J.K. Rowling in the story, and in this chapter I have taken direct lines from _Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix_ and _Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_. No copyright infringement intended.

**Chapter 1 – Friendship Lost**

"Quills down please!" She heard Professor Flitwick squeak. "That means you too, Stebbins! Please remain seated while I collect your parchment! _Accio!_"

Lily's Defence Against the Dark Arts O.W.L. parchment flew across the hall and she stood up, stretching. "How did you do?" Mary McDonald was skipping towards her.

"Not as well as you by the looks of you" Lily replied smiling.

"No, you've always been better in defence than I am, I'm happy to get an acceptable."

"Your talking nonsense and you know it, anyway I did better on my Charms and Potions tests" Lily said, light-hearted. They joined their friends, Emma Bennet and Alice Abercrombie and went to the lake where they met a few Ravenclaw girls.

"It's warm today lets sit down here, we deserve it!" Mary said and they took their shoes and socks off and started to bath their feet. They sat there giggling and talking and of course the talk quickly turned to boys.

"Has anything more happened Alice?" Emma asked.

"No, we don't have much time to be together because of the exams and all, he doesn't have to study as hard of course. But I really like him."

"Who are you talking about?" one of the Ravenclaw girls asked.

"Oh, haven't you heard?" Emma said giggling "Frank asked Alice out a few weeks ago!"

"Frank? Frank Longbottom the sixth year Gryffindor?" another Ravenclaw girl asked amazed as Alice went scarlet and decided to change the subject.

"Lily, you haven't been out with anyone since that sixth year Hufflepuff took you out to Hogsmead last year! What's holding you down? The boys practically stand in lines behind you! You know that Potter boy fancies you!"

"James Potter, that toerag who thinks he's better than everyone else! Please, I'd rather go out with a spider!" Lily burst out and the girls laughed.

"Speaking of Potter, looks like he's picking on your _friend_ that Snape boy again." Mary said, speaking the word friend with disgust in her voice. "I honestly don't understand how you can like that _Death Eater_!" But Lily didn't hear the second part of her speech because she had stormed off and was already halfway towards the boys.

James Potter and Sirius Black had Severus Snape bound by the impediment jinx, and soap bubbles were coming out of his mouth. "Leave him ALONE!" Lily shouted. The boys looked around and James immediately ruffled his hair.

"All right, Evans?" He called to her in a pleasant voice that disgusted her.

"Leave him alone! What's he done to you?" She said, she had to hold herself together so she wouldn't attack Potter herself.

"Well, it's more the fact that he exists, if you know what I mean." He answered casually and the surrounding crowd laughed.

"You think you're so funny," she said coldly "but you're just an arrogant bullying toerag, Potter. Leave him _alone_."

"I will if you go out with me, Evans," Potter said quickly. _This_ was what she hated about Potter, he was so stuck up and desperate and couldn't grasp the idea that she hated him! "Go on" he went on seeing the look on her face "... go out with me and I'll never lay a wand on old Snivelly again." Now Severus had started to inch towards his fallen wand behind Potter, spitting out soap bubbles.

"I wouldn't go out with you if it was a choice between you and the giant squid." Lily spat out.

"Bad luck, Prongs." Said Sirius and turned back to Severus, and seeing him with his wand in his hand he cried "OI!" But Severus had already aimed his wand at Potter. A gash appeared on the side of Potter's face, spattering his robes with blood. Potter whirled around and in a flash of light Severus was hanging upside down, his robes fell down over his head and everyone laughed as a pair of old greying underpants appeared under them. Even Lily had to hold her laughter in, but then she reminded herself that her friend was in need and this wasn't funny.

"Let him down!" she said, remembering how she hated Potter and his sidekicks.

"Certainly" Potter said and Severus fell into an uncomfortable heap on the ground. He got up quickly and raised his wand.

"_Petrificus Totalus!_" It was Black who hit Severus before he could do anything, and Severus fell over again stiff as a board.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE" Lily shouted and drew out her wand, Potter and Black eyed it warily.

"Ah, Evans, don't make me hex you." Potter said.

"Take the curse off him, then!"

Potter sighed and muttered the counter-curse. "There you go, you're lucky Evans was here Snivellus –"

"I don't need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!" Severus said as he stood up.

Lily was shocked, Severus, her own Sev, called her...

"Fine" she managed to say in a cool voice. "I won't bother in the future. And I'd wash your pants if I were you, _Snivellus_ –" she was about to leave when Potter cried out:

"Apologise to Evans!" She turned to face him to see that he was pointing his wand threateningly at Severus. Her head suddenly filled with anger.

"I don't want _you_ to make him apologise" she shouted, "You're as bad as he is!"

"What?" Potter said astonished "I'd NEVER call you a – you-know-what!"

This was almost too much for Lily, "Messing up your hair because you think it looks cool to look like you've just got off your broomstick, showing off with that stupid Snitch, walking down corridors and hexing anyone who annoys you just because you can – I'm surprised your broomstick can get off the ground with that fat head on it. You make me SICK." She turned around and hurried away, tears filling her eyes, she heard Potter call after her but she didn't care.

She went as fast as she could up to her dormitory in the Gryffindor tower and there she sat down on her bed and cried for a while. Not two minutes had passed until Mary came in.

"Lily are you all right?" I heard what happened.

"I just can't believe it! Sev and I have been friends since forever!" She said upset.

"I know, and I am really sorry, Lily, but you know how I feel about him, maybe he used to be nice but he is aiming to be a Death Eater and you know it."

"I just don't want to believe it!" she sobbed, "Mary, how can I ever forgive him?"

"You don't have to Lily, he's chosen his path."

Lily broke into tears and Mary left her for some time. Emma came up with dinner a while later.

"Feeling better?"

"Yeah, Mary and all of you have been right for years." Lily said.

"So what are you going to do?"

"Nothing, except revise for the Transfiguration O.W.L tomorrow!"

"That's more like it!" Emma said smiling. "You can ask me questions and then I'll ask you." They spent most of the evening in the dormitory revising and Mary and Alice joined them.

"Damn just 40 minutes to curfew and I haven't taken my shower yet." Mary said suddenly.

"You can go if you just hurry up," Alice said.

"Lily can I use the prefects bathroom please?" Mary asked pleading.

"Do what you want but don't be seen, you remember the password, right?"

"Of course I do." Mary said happily and skipped away.

"It's been a hell of a day." Lily said, "I think I'll go to bed."

"Yeah, right there with you" Emma said.

"I'm not tired yet," Alice said, "I'm going to go to the common room to look for Frank."

Lily slept uneasily and hadn't slept for long when she woke up and saw Alice and Mary standing over her, looking worried.

"I'm sorry Lily, I didn't know if I should wake you or not." Mary said, looking odd.

Lily was trying to wake up, "What? Why? What's wrong?"

"Well it's _Snape,_ he's outside the portrait hole. I've told him to go but he said he'd sleep there if he had too. He wants to talk to you." She said.

At this Lily got angry again! "That...! How dare...! I'll _kill..._!" she stuttered.

"I don't think you should forgive him, but I don't think _you_'ll rest until you've settled this between yourselves."

"I guess you're right" Lily sighed. She put on a dressing gown and walked down to see him.

"Lily!" Severus smiled when she came out, she didn't smile back, and his faded. "I'm sorry." He said.

"I'm not interested." She replied.

"I'm sorry!"

"Save your breath! I only came here because Mary told me you were threatening to sleep here"

"I was. I would have done. I never meant to call you Mudblood, it just –"

"Slipped out?" She finished angrily. "It's too late I've made excuses for you for years. None of my friends can understand why I even talk to you. You and your precious little Death Eater friends – you see, you don't even deny it! You don't deny that's what you're all aiming to be! You can't wait to join You-Know-Who, can you?"

Severus opened his mouth and closed it again.

"I can't pretend anymore. You've chosen your way, I've chosen mine."

"No – listen, I didn't mean –"

"- to call me Mudblood? But you call everyone of my birth Mudblood, Severus. Why should I be any different?" And with a hateful glance at him, she turned on her heel and climbed back through the portrait hole.

It wasn't easy to say goodbye to such an old friend, but deep down she had seen this coming. Though that didn't make it any easier to cope with.


	2. Chapter 2

Authors note: I don't own anything, enjoy :)

**Chapter 2 – On the Hogwarts Express**

"Goodbye Mum, Dad" Lily said to her parents hugging them in turn. "See you at Christmas, I love you!" Then she turned back to the Hogwarts Express and jumped on board before the whistle blew. She hurried back to the compartment her friends had picked to set down her pearl spotted owlet.

"Alice, Mary, will you please watch out for Jewel for me while I'm down in the prefects cabin? I'll only be a few hours and do some patrol duty, then I'll come back."

"Sure, Lily," Mary said, "Alice was just telling me about her summer with Frank..."

"Oh I'd love to hear, tell me later will you? I'm running late, the train is starting to move." Lily quickly turned around and walked along the corridor up front where the Prefect cabins were. It wasn't really two cabins, just two cabins put together so they could all sit in there and listen to the new head-boy and girls speeches about how they where going to take responsibility and who was going to do what this year.

She walked into the cabin and looked around, she saw an empty spot next to Remus Lupin and sat down next to him.

"Hi Evans" Lupin said gratefully.

"Hi Lupin" she responded, "nice summer?"

"Fine and yours?"

"It was alright, second half was better when my sister went off to camp"

"Don't like your sister?"

"Well, yeah, but she doesn't like me, or us... She's against wizards," She said sadly.

"Yeah right your family are muggles"

"And she didn't even want to say goodbye to me when I was leaving for the train station!" Even after all these years Petunia had never forgiven Lily for being a witch and it still hurt.

"It's always good to go back to Hogwarts though, it always feels a bit like home, you really feel accepted!" Lupin said, and Lily felt exactly the same way.

"I signed us up for the first shift of patrolling the corridors" Lupin said.

"Wow, that's great! Thanks Lupin!"

After their shift Lily returned to her friends' compartment.

"Lily! You're earlier than usual!" Mary said smiling.

"Yeah, Lupin got us the first shifts of patrolling the corridors and we already know everything the head boy and girl were saying anyway. Speaking of which, Frank is head boy. He looked happy, how was your summer Alice? I heard you stayed at his place for 3 weeks!"

Alice told her all about how nice his parents had been though his mother had been boasting about her son all the time and seemed disappointed that Alice wasn't a prefect. Their talk then turned to OWL's and as expected all four of them passed in all their examination except Divination. They had never taken Divination seriously and effectively all failed, except Alice had gotten an acceptable.

"How did you manage that?" Mary asked. "The only reason we didn't drop the subject was to have a laugh!"

"Well, I was looking at the crystal ball in the examination when I noticed the reflection of the examiners handkerchief that had been stuffed in his pocket and it inspired me to say that he was going to sneeze, but then he did." Alice said giggling, "I guess that's why I passed." They giggled.

"I was really happy, I even got an Outstanding in Muggle Studies! All thanks to Lily of course, and that means I can keep taking Muggle Studies!" Emma said happily.

"Why do you want to learn Muggle Studies?" Mary asked.

"I think they are fascinating! I might find myself a career around them!" Emma answered.

"Talking about careers, what do you want to do in the future?" Lily asked, she was lost in her own career choices.

"I don't know" Mary said unconcerned.

"I would like to be an auror" Alice said, they need more of them now you-know-who is always getting stronger and more followers.

"Yeah like that lot" Mary said, and pointed out the compartment window to the corridors. Sure enough there was a group of Slytherins including Avery, Mulciber and Snape walking passed the compartment. Lily held her breath as she watched Snape walk by, afraid of his reaction if he would see her. But to her relief he didn't look into the compartment.

They finally reached Hogsmead Station and rode the familiar horseless carriages to Hogwarts Castle. After the sorting and the feast they made their way up to Gryffindor tower, Lily and Lupin showing the first years the way. When Lily had finally shown the first years their dormitories she dropped herself into a big armchair by the fireplace, not noticing who was in the sofa across from it.

"Evans!!" Lily started and looked up to see James Potter and Sirius Black . "How was your summer?" Potter asked smiling. Without warning she fired up, and got angry.

"Very good, cause you weren't in it!" she said angrily standing up, she walked passed him up the steps to her dormitory.


	3. Chapter 3

Authors note: I don't own anything. Sorry about how short it is but another one is coming in a couple of hours ;)

Chapter 3 – A new school year

Lily talked to professor McGonagall the following morning about her new timetable. Because she was so unsure about what she would do in the future she decided to take Potions, Charms, Transfiguration, Defence against the Dark arts, Herbology and Arithmancy. She set off with Mary, Emma and Alice to Charms for her first period. They started something new in all of Lily's classes that day and got a lot of homework so first thing after lunch Lily said goodbye to her friends who were off to Care of Magical Creatures and set off for the Library herself.

The next day was just as uneventful as the last until she set off to the Dungeons for her double Potions period with Professor Slughorn.

"Lily! How good it is to see you dear! Had a good summer?" Slughorn came to her as she walked through the classroom door.

"Yeah, very relaxing." Lily said smiling.

"I am going to have a party next week, you will be there won't you?"

"Sure"

"I wouldn't want to miss my favourite potions student! Such talent!"

Lily smiled and sat down.

"Suck up!" Mary whispered in her ear.

"What would you have done?" Lily asked amused.

Because of her successful draught of living death Slughorn gave her no homework for the weekend so she took it easy, by taking walks and reading most of the weekend. On Monday afternoon she had her first Arithmancy lesson of the year, although she loved the subject she was afraid she would get lonely this year. Last year Dorothy, a Ravenclaw girl, had been in the class with her but she had dropped the subject. Lily sat down alone and took out her books. To her surprise someone sat down beside her, looking up she saw it was Lupin.

"Hey Evans, I heard Dorothy dropped the class, so did James and Sirius. Isn't it alright that I sit here?"

"Sure, and please call me Lily."

"Lily then, Remus at your service!" He said and bowed smiling.

"With Potter and Black gone, the class will be much quieter. They hardly got any work done last year! Did they fail the O.W.L?" Lily said, her spirit rising by the idea.

"No, actually they both got Outstanding." Remus said grinning.

"No, seriously? Why would they drop the subject then?" Lily asked amazed.

"Wanted more free time, and they've already decided what they're going to do in the future so they dropped everything that they don't need."

"What if they change their minds?"

"You sound just like me when I was trying to convince them to keep at least one subject they don't need to become aurors." Remus laughed but Lily's stomach sunk a little.

"They are thinking of becoming aurors?" She asked

"They have decided to become aurors. It's becoming popular, especially after the ministry said there weren't enough of them."

"Yeah, at least a lot of us Gryffindors. What are you thinking of doing?"

"Well I'd like to be an auror, but I'm not sure all doors are open to me."

"What do you mean? You're a prefect! You've got really good marks, you are smart, what is to stop you from becoming an auror?"

"What are you thinking of becoming?" Lupin asked, and Lily noticed that this was a change of subject but she didn't push it.

"I don't know, I don't want to just take the same path as everyone else, but then again I'm so mad at you-know-who, how he takes families apart and attacks people like my parents just for being what they are. I feel like I have to protect them." Remus opened his mouth to say something but at that moment Professor Vector started the class and they both directed their attention to him.

In the following weeks Lily and Remus always studied together in Arithmancy and often joined each other in the Library. They fast became good friends.


	4. Chapter 4

Authors note: I don't own anything. Please write me a review, I've already finished writing but I want to be able to use comments from people to make my writing better.

Chapter 4

"Argh! I just don't get it!" Remus burst out, tugging at his hair!

"Remus, you look very tired you should be resting!" Lily said concerned.

"No, I feel fine, and I don't have time to rest I need to get up to date in Arithmancy, I didn't understand anything this week." He said irritably.

Lily eyed him suspiciously, he claimed to leave school to see his sick mother every now and then, but he always seemed so distant when he said it and always came back extremely tired and weary looking.

"Well, I'll help you with it tomorrow I promise, but you can't concentrate like this! Let's turn to transfiguration it isn't as attention craving... do you know what I'm doing wrong? I can't seem to conjure anything alive out of nowhere."

"Yeah, I had some problems with it myself until I came across this book in here in the Library the other day, I'm still reading it but you can read chapter six now if you want." He said and handed her a big leather book called Magical mysteries, tips and tricks. She took it smiling and began to read chapter six as Remus started conjuring a variety of rodents into a cardboard box he had with him.

"I'm going to go meet James and wish him luck for the Quidditch match, it starts in an hour." Remus said standing up. "You can return the book later."

When Lily had finished reading the sixth chapter (and seventh and eighth because it was so interesting) she stood up and decided to drop her stuff off in her dormitory before she went to the match. Most of the school was making their way down to the Quidditch pitch by now and on her way to the Gryffindor tower she saw Remus; she walked towards him.

"Evans, come to wish me luck?" Lily hadn't noticed Potter, but there he was smiling. She cast him an irritated look and turned to Remus.

"Remus, I've got your book I'm going to drop my bag off in the Gryffindor tower before I go down to the match, do you want me to return your book later or do you want it now?"

"No problem Lily, I can take it up to my dormitory now, if you don't mind James, good luck." And Lily and Remus walked in the same direction Remus just came from. Before they were out of earshot however Lily over heard James saying "Lily? Since when have _they_ been on first name terms?" flabbergasted.

Remus sighed.

"What's wrong?" Lily asked.

"You heard James's tone, I hopes he doesn't take our friendship to badly."

"But why would he..."

"Lily, the guy's head over heals for you, haven't you noticed?"

"No he's just messing around, like he does with everything! He can't take anything seriously! I don't understand how you can be friends with him, or Black for that matter." She said firing up.

"They are better men than you give them credit for," Remus said calmly.

"No I can't see that, they go around hexing everyone they can, just because they can!"

"Have they been this year?" Remus asked calmly. Lily started thinking back to the beginning of the year, and was surprised to realise that Potter and Black hadn't attacked as much as the previous years.

"They're still jerks!" she said at last. They continued their talk about Potter and Black all the way down to the Quidditch pitch.

"Why are you so defensive Lily? What makes you so sure he's so bad?" Remus asked a bit exasperated but apparently amused.

"He just is! And it annoys me how stuck up he always is, and can't take a hint!"

"What do you mean by take a hint?"

"You saw him earlier how he had to act like _I_ would be coming to wish _him_ luck! And having to ask me to go out with him again and again! It just makes me sick how he always thinks he owns a place just because he's there!"

Remus couldn't say anything to this and didn't answer, they were already finding seats by now and Remus indicated two empty seats in which they sat in.

* * *

"So are you and that Lupin boy going out now?" Alice and Lily where sitting in a corner of the common room, everyone was in there now celebrating the spectacular win of the first Quidditch match of the season.

"We aren't going out, we're just friends. We've been in Arithmancy together and we study together in the Library."

"Do you like him?" Alice said smiling.

"Yes, but not that way... at least I don't think so... maybe." She said, she had never thought of Remus that way, she really liked his company and they had a lot in common. "How did you know you liked Frank?"

"Well I don't know, first I always thought, you know, he was out of my league, prefect, and a year older than I."

"Yeah..."

"But he apparently noticed me at one of Slughorn's parties in our 4th year. And he'd been working up the courage to ask me out for a whole year before he finally did. Maybe Lupin's just working up the courage to ask you."

"Why would Frank be afraid to ask anyone out? He's good looking and very good at everything! He was a prefect and head boy now!"

"Well every time he talked to me I always assumed he was making fun of me or something. So I kind of dodged him." Alice replied blushing.

"That doesn't sound like Frank."

"No, but I liked him, and assumed he was too good to be true. I don't know."

Lily looked across the common room trying to find Remus, and finally she spotted him. He was apparently having a rather heated discussion with Potter. Lily's heart sank; she didn't want to cause Remus any trouble.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5 – The furry little problem**

Lily woke up the next morning with the uncomfortable feeling that something was wrong. After breakfast she headed off to the Library as she always did when she had homework. Expecting to see Remus there because he hadn't been at breakfast, she was disappointed. She had promised him to help him with his Arithmancy, so she stayed in the library reading for a whole hour after she had finished her charms essay and managed to conjure a bird out of nowhere, before she gave up and decided to take a walk around the lake.

The next day she sat down beside Remus in Arithmancy. He seemed distant.

"You weren't in the library yesterday." She said.

"I don't always have to study there you know." He said. Lily didn't like his tone.

"I never said you did, but you usually do and I had promised to help you with the Arithmancy, I waited for you!" She said annoyed. Remus's face relaxed a bit and he turned towards her.

"I'm sorry Lily, this is my fault. James didn't take it very well that we are friends and everyone has been saying that we are going out. And I owe James better than this."

"You don't owe him anything. And why should something everyone else is saying influence us?"

"Actually Lily I can never tell you how much James has done for me."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Never mind. I just think we shouldn't spend too much time together, we both have our own friends." This hurt Lily but thankfully she didn't have to answer because at that moment professor Vector decided to start his class.

November passed to December and Lily and Remus still weren't talking to each other. Lily was hurt and this increased her dislike of James Potter. How dare he! What kind of mystic hold did he have on Remus?

On the first Sunday in December Lily had finished all her homework by noon so she decided to take a long walk. She liked walking; she did it to clear her mind, especially when she was upset. Her wizarding friends weren't as fond of walking as she was, she got used to walking with her family but she usually did this alone around Hogwarts. She walked to the other side of the lake and up the big hill on the other side of it, there weren't many students who knew this part of the Hogwarts grounds, but this was Lily's favourite, on the other side of the hill was a beautiful scenery. She cleared a bit of the slope of snow with her wand, rapped her cloak around herself and sat down on the now snow free area. She conjured a jar from thin air and charmed up little blue flames in it. She watched a couple of birds flying happily around the sky...

The hunger woke her; it was already dark. She looked at her watch, damn, it was already passed curfew. She had fallen asleep and slept for almost 8 hours. It must have been the cold, it had gotten much colder through the course of the day and evening, the sky was clear. She was sure she would have frozen to death if it weren't for the bluebell flames she had made in the jar. But now she was to cold and to hungry to stand up. She lay there looking at the moon for a while; it was full, so beautiful and bright. And then it came to her. The kitchens were full of food..

"Accio sausages" she said. A couple of minutes later 3 large sausages had come zooming to her. She conjured a glass and filled it with water and gulped down all three sausages. She felt better already. She had a hard time deciding what to do next. She didn't want to get caught out of bed after hours, especially by Filch; but she decided to stand up and walk in the direction of the castle anyway. It was incredible how much you could see in the moonlight, she looked over the grounds and saw the water in the lake rippling and the leaves of the trees in the forbidden forest swaying slowly in the wind. The branches of the Womping willow were also swaying, but not in the same way as the other trees on the grounds, Lily smiled at this, even though she had been a part of the wizarding world for over 5 years now she still amused herself sometimes by looking at the world from a muggle's perspective and laughed at how her parents or sister would react to seeing such things as this. Just then she noticed that the willow's branches had stopped moving, it struck her as odd but she continued to walk around the lake towards the castle. Twenty minutes later she finally reached the castle, but right before she opened the oak front doors she heard a howl, and turning around she saw something moving by the edge of the forest. Her curiosity was awakened and she was about to turn around and walk to the forrest when she started going dizzy from the cold. She hurried inside the castle and made it to bed unnoticed by anyone other than the fat lady who just assumed she was out on prefect parole. But she was determined to find out what she had seen!


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6 – Confrontation**

Lily was sure she was right; it had to be. The more she thought about it the more it made sense. It explained everything. She felt that she owed it to him to tell him what she knew. She had decided to tell him before the Christmas holidays, but this was the last chance. She and Remus were just finishing their shift of patrolling the corridors of the Hogwarts Express and they were going back to their friends' compartments, passing an empty compartment Lily stopped.

"Remus, will you please join me here for a minute." Remus looked surprised but turned around and followed her into it. As he sat down Lily carefully closed the door to the compartment and then took the seat next to him. She took a deep breath and turned to face him.

"I know what Potter is doing to you." She said.

"What? What do you mean?" He looked puzzled.

"He's blackmailing you isn't he?" She said.

"What? No, he's my friend! What would make you think that?"

She took a deep breath. "I know you're a werewolf." She said.

"Oh." Was all he managed to say. He looked away.

"I don't mind, Remus, really! You are one of the nicest people I know!" He looked up at this. "But if Potter is abusing his knowledge..." It was the only thing that made sense, why else would Remus have stopped being friends with her? Potter had Remus in some twisted hold and Lily wasn't going to allow it!

"No you've got it all wrong!" He said. "James has only been supportive!"

"What? But I thought.." she stopped. She had been so sure Potter was bullying him.

"How did you find out?" Remus asked calmly but Lily detected a little sadness or was it fear in his voice.

"Well I never believed you were seeing your mother every month, I sort of saw it was a lie."

"Yeah, lying to you is very difficult." Remus admitted. Lily blushed a little.

"Yes and I was out for a walk a couple of weeks ago and saw the full moon, and I heard a howl. The next day you weren't in class. I think I saw you on the grounds. But I didn't make the connection until I was reading a chapter about werewolves in fantastic beasts and where to find them. Then everything just hit place."

"But why did you think James was blackmailing me?"

At this she went red. "I figured that was why you wouldn't talk to me."

"No Lily, James, Sirius and Peter have been really nice about it. And I owe them a lot, and while James isn't OK with you I can't betray his friendship."

"But Remus, please, I'm your friend too. Can't we at least try to make this work?" she pleaded looking him strait in the eyes. He looked at her, contemplating for a moment.

"We'll try, I miss you anyway. We better get going." He smiled and stood up.


	7. Chapter 7

Author's note: I don't own anything. Thank you Trausti and ethereallovelyness for reviewing and special thanks to Fagur Fiskur for really good pointers. I really hope you're enjoying the story and please review so I can improve myself!

**Chapter 7 – Love (potions) in the air**

The next few months were happy ones; Lily spent a lot of time with Mary, and she and Remus were talking again. They only studied in the library when Potter and Black were in Quidditch practice, but that made Lily happy enough.

Lily, Mary and Emma were on their way down to the Quidditch pitch for the last game of the season; Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw. The teams were very even, which made the match very exciting.

"Lily, you forgot this in Arithmancy." Looking around she saw Remus handing her her favourite quill.

"Oh, thanks Remus I've been looking for it everywhere!" She smiled and looking passed him she saw James Potter looking disgruntled. She hardly had time to think before the words slipped out of her mouth "Good luck Potter!"

James first looked surprised and then pleased.

"Thanks Lily, now he might forget that his annoyed with me, well played." Remus whispered. Lily was confused.

"But I didn't..." but Remus was already off with Potter, Black and Pettigrew. Lily found herself flushing and she felt annoyed for some reason.

* * *

After a really exiting match Gryffindor won, mostly thanks to James Potter, thus winning the Quidditch cup for the 4th year in a row.

The festivity in Gryffindor tower that evening was incredible. Potter and Black somehow showed up with butterbeer and Honeydukes sweets an hour into the celebrations. The celebrations went on for hours. Lily was crossing the common room when she spotted Remus sitting alone on a sofa by the wall.

"Everything all right?" She walked over and sat down.

Remus laughed and pointed towards a person, Lily followed his gaze and saw Peter Pettigrew hitting on some unsuspecting 4th year girls without success. They were looking at him with half amused half exasperated looks and one of them even looked like she was about to choke from trying not to laugh.

"Aw, it's mean to laugh." Lily said snickering. "Where are Black and Potter?"

"Oh well, they getting some more snacks from the kitchen" he said sheepishly

"What? But it's passed curfew, we shouldn't be letting this happen we're prefects." She said in a mock stern voice, amused. "Cheer up Remus, I just hope Filch doesn't catch them" she added when Remus started looking disappointed in himself

"Oh he won't" Remus said as a smile came back to him.

"Hmm, you've inherited some of Potter and Blacks confidence" Lily said and elbowed him,

"Yes well, maybe we've got a few tricks up our sleeves."

"Tricks to pick on other people" Lily muttered under her breath, but somehow Remus still heard her, or maybe he just guessed what she was thinking.

"Still got a grudge against them?"

"How can't I?"

"Come on! They've improved a lot this year!" he said.

"I still see them as arrogant bullying toerags, especially Potter!"

"If you look closely at James you really find that he's one of the most caring and generous people you'll ever know." At this Lily snickered.

"Yeah right!" But they didn't have time to discuss the matter further because just then Emma came running towards them.

"Lily, Lily come quickly! It's Alice! Frank just kissed that 5th year Perkins girl!"

Lily stood up and hurried with Emma across the room, she hated drama but her friend needed her.

Alice was sitting in an armchair tears flowing down her face, Emma hurried to sit on one of the arms and put her arm around Alice's shoulders. Mary had Frank by the scruff of the neck and was yelling insults at him that were all blurred together. Lily brushed her hands though Alice's hair and then turned to Frank who apparently didn't hear a word Mary was yelling at him. In fact he hardly seemed to notice that she was holding onto him, even though she tugged so hard that he bent over in what looked like a very uncomfortable position. He was gazing passed Mary and Alice with a vacant expression, Lily turned around to see what he was looking at. She saw Olivia Perkins talking to a friend looking flushed.

"He's under the influence of a love-potion." Lily said and her temper started rising. Alice and Emma looked up.

"Mary, calm down!" Emma said.

It took a few minutes for Emma to calm her down and there was a lot of swearing involved, meanwhile Lily looked franticly around the room. Mary finally stopped shouting but refused to let go of Frank and just then Lily saw what she was looking for, and realised she was wrong.

She had been looking for the troublemakers, James Potter and Sirius Black, a love potion would sound like a good joke to them; they were just emerging from the portrait hole carrying snacks from the kitchens. It couldn't have been them. She quickly changed tactics and walked over to Olivia Perkins.

"Ms. Perkins will you talk to me for a moment please?"

"Umm, sure" she said but looked uncomfortable.

"Did you give Frank Longbottom a love-potion?" She asked calmly.

"He wasn't supposed to drink it! It was for..." but she stopped at this and turned scarlet.

"Thank you Perkins. I'll deal with you later." She turned around walked back across the room to her friend's aid. She worked quickly and had mixed up an antidote in 10 minutes. "Mary, make him drink this!" She handed Mary a goblet with her antidote and dropped into an empty armchair. She didn't know why but she felt exhausted.

She watched Alice and Frank make up. Alice forgave him at once but Frank kept beating himself up about it. Lily smiled, Frank really was a gentleman and she didn't know anyone who deserved him better than Alice. Alice was the type of girl that trusted people and was in danger of trusting boys who just wanted to use her. Lily had been afraid that might happen to her friend and was really protective of her, but no one had expected Frank to ask her out. Alice was smart and brave of course, but she was never considered the prettiest girl of the year. In fact, Lily flushed at the thought, most people said that Lily was, the boys always piled them selves in front of her, but she didn't really like it, of course it was nice to go out once in a while with someone but she could never know whether the boy liked her solely because of her looks or if they were interested in her personality. Lily looked around the common room and spotted Remus, Potter and Black laughing Pettigrew who had moved to another group of girls 3rd year this time. She suddenly had a feeling of guilt in her stomach, she decided to go up to bed.

Even though she felt so tired and numb all of the sudden she had a hard time falling a sleep. It was the second time this year that she had been positive James Potter was doing something wrong but he wasn't. And what had Remus said_ If you look closely at James you really find that he's one of the most caring and generous people you'll ever know. _She had couldn't imagine that, surely Remus must be wrong. She finally drifted off to sleep.


	8. Chapter 8

Authors note: Sorry about the delay, I've been very busy, I will have the next chapters up soon, but the more reviews I get the quicker they'll come because I'm always looking for ways to improve the chapters, I've already written them. As always I don't own anything (hence being fanfiction).

Chapter 8

"Congratulations! Last exam over!" Remus grinned.

"Thanks Remus, how did you do?" Lily asked, they were on their way down from their last exam of the term, Arithmancy, they were heading out to the grounds because the weather was great and they had been cooped up for too long.

"Fine, thanks to you! Half of that exam was taught when I wasn't in class." he sighed.

"You're welcome, I'm just happy you let me help!" Lily said cheerfully. Then they heard a call from behind them.

"Moony!" They turned around and there was James Potter, Lily quickly said goodbye to Remus and headed to the grounds alone.

When she stepped out into the sun it took her a moment to get used to the light so she stopped on the stone steps and looked over the grounds. When her eyes started adjusting she spotted Emma walking towards the lake, not to far from her; Lily knew she had just come from her Muggle Studies examination. When Lily started to follow her she saw three boys coming up behind her, Lily identified them as Mulciber, flanked by Avery and Severus. Emma tripped, apparently Mulciber had throne a leg-locker curse at her from behind. Lily sprinted towards them without stopping to think.

"Leave her alone! What has she done to you!"

"Muggle loving filth!" Mulciber was sneering down at his victim.

"Look Mulciber! It's her mudblood friend." Avery said smirked. Mulciber shot a disarming spell at her but Lily blocked it easily non-verbally. Both Mulciber and Avery started yelling curses at her witch she blocked.

"Better practice your non-verbal spells better," she said smiling. Emma had gotten free of her leg-locker curse and joined Lily. Mulciber and Avery shouted insults at the girls and kept throwing curses at them.

"Severus! Are you dim? Come and so something!" Mulicber yelled. Severus who had stood there frozen for the last couple of minutes came round and tried to disarm Emma but Lily blocked it. He then managed to hit Emma with a non-verbal stunning spell while the girls were busy blocking Avery and Mulciber's curses.

This shocked Lily for enough time to forget to block Avery's full body bind curse, all in all she was lucky because Mulciber had just aimed a much worse curse at her but missed.

"Now let's show that filthy mudblood what she deserves!" Mulciber sneered. But before he could lift his wand it soared out of his hand. Severus and Avery raised theirs but before they could cast a spell their wands were blasted away too. Lily felt the body bind curse lift and she looked around to see Remus coming to help her stand up.

"Thanks Remus!" She said gasping for breath.

"Don't thank me, thank James" Remus said. And then Lily noticed that James Potter was had hoisted Avery and Mulciber up by ankle with the Levicorpus spell while Severus was dodging the spells he was throwing at him. Severus finally managed to lunge himself on the ground close to his wand and pointed it at Potter.

"Sectum-" he began.

"Stupify!" Lily yelled instinctively but then groaned as she saw Professor McGonagall striding towards them. Professor McGonagall gave detentions to the three Slytherins and Lily and James.

* * *

"So is this your first detention?" James asked as he sat down on the floor with a large trophy beside Lily. It was the last day at Hogwarts. They were in the Trophy room, doing their detention of polishing all the trophies; the Slytherins were out of sight at the other side of the room.

"Are you joking? I might not be as bad as you but I'm no saint!"

"The prefect herself!" James said smiling.

"Remus gets into trouble every now and then." Lily pointed out.

"And yet that never ceases to surprise me." James grinned.

"You are a bad influence you know, Potter" she said sternly but smiling all the same.

"What can I say," James laughed. "And please call me James, you're on first name terms with a werewolf anyway."

"Be careful, we're not alone here remember!" she whispered.

"Oh yeah I forgot the Slytherins, but they probably know already, _Snivellus_ does at least."

"He does?"

"Curtsey of Padfoot, Sirius that is"

"Yeah I know his nickname. But why?"

"Remus didn't tell you? I would have thought, if he told you our nicknames..."

"He didn't, I've overheard you using them, we don't talk much about our friends we mostly just study together, that's all."

"Observant, you are. But yeah Sirius got really pissed at Snivellus in December and kind of told him how to get into the secret passage under the Womping willow. Snape went in there and glimpsed Mooney."

"But how did he get away alive?"

"I went in after him." James said.

"But that's really brave of you!" Lily said surprised.

"Well sometimes I wish I let him go." As Lily's started to frown he quickly added "But I never would have!"

"But how could Black do something like that?"

"He didn't mean any harm! Snivellus brought up a very sensitive subject."

"What could be bad enough to make up for what he did?"

"I'm not saying it made up for it, I won't defend what he did. It was a very stupid thing of Sirius to do and my parents had a field day over it!"

"Your parents?" Lily was getting really confused.

"Yeah, he moved in with my family last summer, not that it changed anything, he already spent most of his holidays at our place."

"But why?"

"Well that's exactly what old Snivelly brought up. His family are one of the old families supporting you-know-who! Scum, the lot of them. They disowned pour Sirius after he moved out, not that he wanted anything to do with them, but it's always a difficult subject for him." This surprised Lily and she remained silent. "Can I ask you something?" James asked after a minute.

"Sure." She said surprised and relieved at the same time.

"Why were you friends with Snape before?" James looked into her eyes. She just stared blankly to the front, it was a just question and she knew it. Finally she answered:

"Well, we live in the same town. He was always nice, nicer than you ever were." She smiled vaguely and looked at James who was now looking away from her, down to the floor.

"Yeah, I guess people can change" He said thoughfully.

"Yeah," Lily said and she suddenly wasn't sure whether they were talking about Snape or Potter. They were silent for a couple of minutes and then she decided to be bold. "Can I ask you something? It's a bit personal." James was surprised and then smiled.

"Sure, if I can call you Lily." He said and she grinned.

"Deal! Well you see when I worked out that Remus had his little problem I first thought that you were teasing him about it and was trying to console him about it, but he said that you had taken it really well and he really owed you. But the devotion and gratitude that I feel from is always unexplained, he always dodges the subject when I ask him or says that he could never take it for granted that someone would stick by him once they've found out what he is. But I know there is more I was wondering whether you would tell me." While she spoke James's face showed a variety of emotions from surprise, incredibility and amusement. Though Lily looked she didn't see any traces of anger or annoyance.

"Like I said before you are very observant! And yes this is very personal." He paused for a minute. "I might tell you, but not yet, I don't know if I can trust you st. Lily!" This made Lily laugh. They had finished polishing the trophies now and James jumped to his feet offering his hand to help Lily up. "The feast will start soon."

"Thank you James." She said taking his hand, his face burst into a wide smile.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9 - 7th year**

"Just go and have a look around, I know that's what you want to do! I'll buy my books by myself," Lily assured her parents. She was getting tired of them. _They_ were fascinated by Diagon Alley and loved to see all the magic. Lily knew this and didn't want to ruin their one day a year they got to experience it and this being the last one as she was off to her last year at Hogwarts. She was also embarrassed because they kept pointing and laughing at ordinary things like flying objects and moving pictures.

"All right honey, you'll find us?" her mother asked.

"Yes mum, see you later!" she said walking into Florrish and Blot's alone. Finding her schoolbooks wasn't hard but she wanted to find something else to read too so she headed to the back of the shop to look at some wizarding biographies. She was reading the back of a book when someone spoke behind her.

"I wouldn't read that one, Stebbins is a stuck up bore if you ask me!" She turned around; it was James Potter.

"Oh, hi Po- James, thanks." She said, flushed and taken aback.

"You should try that one about Uric he was quite funny but brilliant in his own way." He said pointing to a Violet book above Lily's head, she took it out and read the back.

"Yes this does look interesting..." she started but when she looked up he was gone, but he couldn't have gotten past her because she was blocking the only very narrow hallway leading to the main part of the shop. She looked around incredulously, but there was no place he could be hiding. Finally she shrugged and walked off to pay for her books.

* * *

"We've found a compartment in the back of the train, I'll help you with your trunk." It was the first of September. Mary and Lily were making their way with Lily's trunk on to the train. Out of the crowd suddenly James Potter came towards them.

"Hi Lily," He said cheerfully.

"James, hi" she said startled.

"Nice blouse" he commented. Lily looked down at her blouse.

"Thanks I..." but when she looked up again he was gone. She looked at Mary and noticed that she looked incredulous.

"I thought you didn't like James Potter." She said suspiciously.

"I don't!" Lily said, but maybe a little too fast. "We just have a mutual friend that's all!" she added. Mary didn't look convinced.

They made their way to their compartment and Lily headed off to the prefects compartment. She had to be there early this year because she had been appointed head girl, to her great surprise as her final act last year had been to get into detention. After a couple of hours she was finally free to go back to her friends.

The only one of her friends that had something really interesting to say about their summer was Alice. Frank had spent the whole summer at her house and apparently he got along with her parents really well. Alice sounded a little bored of reciting the story but very pleased all the same. Lily laughed and teased her along with the other girls and felt really happy for her friend.

Authors note: As you see I've abandoned the plot of James becoming head boy because I am not convinced (although Hagrid said so) that he really was. Hagrid is known to exagerate things and I felt that if he were head boy in this story it would be irrelevant to the plot-line, I would have to write about peoples reactions to this unexpected appointment and I'm just to lazy for it. Thank you for reading and reviewing, I do not own anything.!

ps. (to anna my faithful pet who always reads my stories) I never said I was perfect so stop complaining sweetie!


	10. Chapter 10

Authors note: I own nothing, Happy easter!

**Chapter 10 - Encounters**

The load of homework that was piled on the seventh years was so high it was almost inhumane. Lily spent most of her free time in the library, she rarely had any trouble concentrating when she was in there, she simply focused on what she was supposed to do and _voila_ she was in another world and only her homework bothered her. At least that's how it usually was.

Lately there were occasional moments when she suddenly snapped out of her homework trance and had a hard time getting back into it again, those moments all involved James Potter. He kept appearing behind her, he would comment on something or offer her a piece of advice, but the moment she looked away he would vanish. She couldn't understand, most of the time there was no place for him to go or hide, and he wasn't being rude so she didn't understand why he kept disappearing. At first she didn't mind that much but as it went on she found herself wondering more and more about it.

It wasn't until the first week of December that she realised there was a pattern. She was sitting at a table at the far end of the library doing research for a potions paper when James interrupted her.

"You know, Lily, there is a much better description of Wormwood in this book." He dropped the book on the desk in front of her. Lily looked up at him.

"You know, this is getting a bit annoying." She said.

"I bet it is," he said casually "It only took me an hour to write my essay after I found that book, I'm sure it will help you." Lily was determined not to loose sight of him this time.

"I... um... er, thanks" She stuttered.

"Lily! There is a spider on your desk!" He warned her. She spun around, and sure enough there was a spider there. But she spun back again so as not to lose James but he had already gone. She felt a short light breeze on her face, but then she remembered the spider on her desk. She magically levitated it and sent it zooming out the open window. She looked at her watch, only half an hour till lunch, she'd better study fast. But then she remembered that every time James showed up that's how it had been, she looked at her watch and tried to cram in half an hours worth of studying but always ended up giving up and going 5 minutes early to lunch. There was only one day a week she had the last period before lunch free, so he was coming "every Thursday!" She had said the last two words out loud, she smiled to herself, next time she would be ready.

The week couldn't pass fast enough, she found herself constantly thinking about James, and with every day that Thursday came nearer the more difficult it became for her to concentrate. On Thursday she hurried down to the library in the empty period before lunch only to realise when she got there that she had forgotten her books. But she decided to sit down anyway and wait for him to come. But she waited, and waited. She kept checking her watch, when there were only 5 minutes till lunch she was going to give up, but then he suddenly appeared from behind a bookshelf.

"Hello Lily, not studying?" He asked.

"No, I, um, am having trouble concentrating," she said truthfully.

"Well, don't let me hold you back." He said and turned to walk away, but Lily suddenly found herself stopping him.

"Wait!" she cried out to him.

"Why?" He asked.

"Err," she started, but the truth was, she didn't know why she didn't want him to leave. A few months ago she hated James, what had changed? Why had she come to the library to wait for him? But in the few moments she had stopped to think, James had vanished again.

* * *

"...she is isn't she?" the girls giggled and Lily snapped out of her thoughts,

"What?" she asked, they were sitting by the fire in the Gryffindor common room, Alice, Emma and Mary had apparently been talking and giggling about her.

"Who were you thinking about?" Emma asked.

"Um, No one!" Lily answered a little fast.

"Yes you were! It's a boy isn't it?" Alice giggled.

"Lily's in Luuuv!" Mary said mockingly.

"Girls stop it!" Lily said, blushing.

"Who is it?" Alice asked.

"No one, what makes you so sure I'm thinking about a boy anyway?" She said.

"The look on your face, gave everything away, dazed, dreamy, you even sighed." Mary said and the girls started to giggle.

"Well you're wrong, I wasn't thinking about a boy, I was thinking about Arithmancy!" She stood up, irritated.

"Oooo, it's that Lupin boy isn't it?" Emma asked.

Lily paused, "Very funny girls." She said coolly, and headed towards the portrait hole. Her tone had shut up the girls, of course her last sentence had been very convincing, because she hadn't been thinking about Remus. In fact she had been thinking about James. She had caught herself thinking about him quite often these days, but she hadn't faced the fact that she might be falling for him, not before now. The girls had suddenly opened her eyes to that. She was out in the corridor now, standing in front of the fat lady, she looked at her watch. Half an hour to curfew, she thought she might as well take a walk in the castle before going to bed. She hadn't walked very far though when James appeared smiling. She couldn't help it, she smiled back.

"Nice to see you Lily, what are you doing here?" he asked.

"I'm taking a walk, clearing my head." She answered truthfully.

"May I join you?" he asked.

"Sure, if you promise not to vanish on me. It's rude you know!" she answered and they started to walk side by side. Lily didn't know what to say. She suddenly became shy, but the silence wasn't uncomfortable.

"So, what are you going to do after Hogwarts?" James asked after a while.

"I'm not positive yet, but I'm leaning towards Auror training, whatever I do I'm going to join the Order of the Phoenix, I have to do what ever I can, for my family's sake."

"Not to mention your own, Lily, it's not easy being muggleborn in these times." James said, and Lily thought she heard concern in his voice.

"Yeah well, I can take care of myself." She said laughing.

"I don't doubt that, but please be careful!" There was no mistaking it this time, he was concerned, her heart leapt at the thought and her smile widened.

"So if you come to Auror training too, then there will be four of us, you, me, Padfoot and hopefully Moony if they let him in."

"Oh they have to let him in! It's so stupid this grudge against werewolves!"

"Shows just how flawed our community really is! There are only a handful of people who know better than to fear werewolves once you get to know them"

"Speaking of Remus and werewolves. Last June you promised that you'd explain why Remus is so grateful towards you."

"That's true, what did I say again? That I didn't know if I could trust you, right?"

"Yes and that's really unfair because you haven't given me any chance to prove myself!"

"I'll tell you what, come to Hogsmead with me and afterwards I'll show you!"

"All right, when's the next Hogsmead trip?" She asked.

"No, now. Come with me to Hogsmead now."

"Wait how?" She asked suddenly afraid and taken aback. James had stopped.

"Will you come?" He asked.

"How..?"

"Yes or no?" He asked gravely.

"Alright!" She finally said, wondering if she was finally going to find out what Remus had meant by _"maybe we've got a few tricks up our sleeves" _last May. And sure enough, James took out his wand and turned to an ugly statue of a humpbacked one-eyed witch, he tapped the statue and said "Dissendium". The statues hump opened and James pointed towards it.

"Ladies first." Lily eyed him, reproachfully. "Trust me!" He said, she gave in, and thrust herself into the hole. She felt herself sliding down what felt like a stone slide and land on cold earth. She then heard James following her. She stood up. They seemed to be in a stone passage, it was large enough so she could stand there. They both lit their wands, and started walking down the passage.

"What is this tunnel anyway?" Lily asked.

"Well, it's a passage that leads to the Honeydukes cellar. But we wont go all the way, we'll just apparate when we get far enough from the school grounds."

Lily didn't have any thing to say, she knew she was supposed to be ashamed of breaking the rules like this, but somehow she was just really exited to spend more time with James. She was walking in front of him, but he warned her beforehand every time there was a bump in the path floor. It was obvious that he had gone through here very often. Suddenly he took her arm and stopped her. She shivered from his touch.

"This is far enough." And without another word he spun on the spot. Next thing she knew they were standing outside The Three Broomsticks. "Butterbeer?" He asked and led her into the pub.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

To Lily's surprise Madam Rosmerta was fine with them being in the pub, even though she knew that they were supposed to be in school.

"Is Madam Rosmerta in on what you are going to show me?" Lily asked.

"Oh no," James said and chuckled. "She likes me and James too much to tattle on us when we come here, mind she does get a lot of money from us, we're regulars and we always tip well."

"Then what was the point of coming here?" Lily asked, smiling.

"I've always wanted to go out with you Lily Evans, I wasn't about to pass a chance to." He said and looked into her eyes. She felt herself blushing, she couldn't get herself to stop looking into his eyes. He smiled and took a large gulp from his Butterbeer, remembering hers she drew her eyes away from him and gulped down the rest of it in a few gulps. Not knowing what to do then she started playing with her tankard restlessly.

"Worried about getting into trouble?" James asked, eyeing her tankard.

"No, it's just, strange being here." She admitted, not looking up at him.

"Uncomfortable?" he asked.

"No, not at all" she looked up. "that's the strange part, I'm really enjoying this." She looked away when she said the last part.

James had finished his Butterbeer too and stood up, "Come on I'll show you as promised." They walked out of the pub and up the high street and out to the edge of the village at the foot of the mountain. They walked along the edge of the mountain for a bit until they were in some distance from the village. James stopped and turned to face Lily.

"Alright, so when we found out that Remus was a werewolf we decided to try to make his transformation once a month easier for him. And because we can't come near him as humans we decided to become animals." He explained calmly and Lily gasped, just a moment later James transformed in front of her into a big beautiful brown stag with majestic horns. Lily was speechless, her jaw dropped, and she took a step back, not because of fright but to see this creature a bit better. Finally she found her voice again.

"You did all this for him?" She managed to say. The stag nodded. Lily just stood there staring at James. Suddenly he started jerking his head backwards, looking at her, apparently trying to tell her something. "You want me to climb on?" she asked uncertainly. He nodded again.

"Er, alright, if you're sure." He nodded encouragingly and Lily climbed on his back. "Where should I hold on? Is it OK if I hold onto your horns here?" she asked and indicated to where the horns grew out from the head. James gave an approving sound and nodded. When she had a good grip on the horns James started walking up the mountain, and picked up pace. When they were almost on the top of the mountain he started running, the scenery was beautiful! Hogwarts was dominating in the distance. James's stamina was incredible; he kept running for a long time. Finally he slowed down and walked calmly for a while until they reached a group of boulders, there he stopped and swayed, obviously indicating for Lily to get off. She slid off and sat down on one of the boulders and rapped her cloak around herself because it was cold up here. James transformed into a human again and sat down next to her. In no time he had conjured up a jar with blue flames for them to warm up. They sat there in comfortable silence for a while. Lily wasn't sure how much time had passed but she suddenly felt really tired and yawned, at the same time the cold seemed to come back to her and she started to shiver. James put his arms around her and tried to warm her up.

"I think this is hopeless, when your this tired you won't get warm again." He finally said and stood up. "Take my hand." He said.

Lily stood up and took his arm. James spun on the spot and next thing she knew they were back in the stone passage. She didn't let go of his arm as he led the way back though the tunnel towards Hogwarts. When they finally got out of the tunnel James started pulling something out of his pocket. It was a cloak.

"Get under here it's an invisibility cloak, so no one will see us." Lily wasn't even surprised, and got under without questioning him.

The common room was empty when they got there. Lily turned to face James.

"Thank you, this was a wonderful night, I understand you much better now" she said, then she gave him a peck on the cheek and hurried up to her dormitory.


	12. Chapter 12

Authors note: Thank you for sticking with me though this, this was my first fan fiction and I am proud to give you the last chapter. Please review and tell me what you think. Some people have asked me to make a few chapters from James's perspective and I think I might do that when I have time in the summer. Love you all! -I don't own anything :P

**Chapter 12**

The week that followed was the last week of term. Because of the vast pile of homework the seventh years had Lily and James didn't have time to speak to each other once. Every now and then, in class or at meal times they caught each others eye and smiled at each other, but this went unnoticed by everyone except Remus and Alice, though Lily didn't know this. On the last day of term they were aloud to go to Hogsmead for a bit of Christmas shopping, and Lily went with Alice, Emma and Mary.

"I've found everything I need" Mary said.

"So have I, fancy a Butterbeer?" Emma asked.

"I haven't found anything for Frank yet, you go ahead though." Alice said

"I'll come with you, Alice" Lily said quickly, and they parted with the other two girls and entered a bookstore across the street.

"Are you going to give James anything?" Alice asked. Lily froze, Alice laughed at the look on her face.

"I see how you two look at each other it's obvious something is going on." She said calmly.

"Well, I hadn't thought about it. Should I?" Lily said confused.

"Do you want to give him anything?" Alice asked.

"Well yes, but I don't know if it's appropriate, I don't know where we are, I mean we aren't together, I don't know what'll happen." She said.

"Well, buy it and then just keep it if you don't find a right time to give it to him, he's got a birthday in March." Alice advised. Lily found an interesting looking book called "Knowing your enemy's stare" and decided to buy it for James. She rapped it and tucked it under her cloak.

* * *

The train finally arrived at Kings Cross station, Lily hadn't seen James anywhere, and felt like he might be avoiding her. The thought made her sad. But she decided to think about her parents in stead, she quickly disembarked from the train with her friends. Her parents and her sister Petunia were standing there on the platform. Lily made her way towards them and gave them a big hug. Together they made their way out into the Muggle world.

"Wait a moment" she said to her family, and turned to her three best friends, Alice, Mary and Emma who were all waking with their families and hugged them all in turn. "See you after the holidays." She told them and turned to leave but suddenly she heard her name being called. She spun around. James was walking towards her, his family and Sirius behind him looking confused. James was well dressed considering he had just been travelling in a train full of students. He took her hand and dragged her off to the side.

"I've got a Christmas present for you." He said and handed her a small but beautifully rapped present.

"I've got one for you too" she said and drew the book out from under her cloak.

"I know you would rather go out with the giant squid, but... Will you go out with me, Lily Evans?" He said, looking in her eyes.

"The squid can wait," She said and smiled. She turned to leave but he stopped her. There and then he kissed her, in front of her family and friends, but she didn't care, she kissed him back. It lasted for what could have been an hour or a second. Then finally she looked at him they had identical smiles on their faces.

"Happy Christmas Lily, see you in a couple of weeks." He whispered and walked away.

Lily giggled at the look on Mary's face and reflected on how long a way she had come since she met James first. Now she didn't want to leave him, this had to be the start of something good.


End file.
